Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend , Ive seen this coin for sale at a quite reasonable price and thought some other opinions would help before I took the plunge and made an offer ! I know Galba and the other emperors from the crisis of 68-69 AD have quite a few fakes around , anyway here are the sellers pics :- 3.29 g
The weights not specified , although i sent a message asking for it . Hopefully he’ll get back to me with the extra info ! —-(3.29g).
Price too low to be true? Tooled, maybe? I'm not an expert in this series by any means, so take this with a grain of salt. Look at how flat the cheeks are and with all the mushiness and flow lines in the inscriptions and dotted border, it was struck with a worn die. But look at how much "detail" there is in the laurel wreath and hair. It's discordant. See if you can find a die match to a known example somewhere and compare. This is the sort of coin you'd want to get from HJB or CNG and not a local coin store or off e-Bay.
That’s what got me thinking , with the hair and wreath looking so good . It’s hard to tell off these pics really
The coins appears to have had some smoothing in the cleaning process (as normal), but I do not like the looks of the hair. It seems odd since most coins reflect Galba with short hair. Other than the hair (I may be way off on this), I see nothing to make me question the authenticity
NOT an expert, but here is my QUINARIUS for comparison. RI GALBA 68-69 BCE AR Quinarius Lugdunum mint laureate r Victory globe stdng left 15mm 1.5g RIC 131 scarce Ex: @Brian Bucklan (very reputable Seller)
I don't know what you consider a reasonable price, but if it's $500 or less I would be very suspicious. I've been thinking about buying a Galba denarius myself, specifically one of these two, both from reputable dealers in Germany: https://www.ma-shops.com/ritter/item.php?id=38952 https://www.ma-shops.com/hanseaten/item.php?id=180423101 Note that they're both around the $500 level, even though their condition is not nearly as nice as the one you're contemplating. (I've hesitated because even $500 is a great deal of money for me to spend on one coin. Plus I can't decide which one I like better!)
Five hundred dollars is a lot of money to most of us. I have two Galba coins in my collection. One was around $130 and the other $225. I think $500 is too much unless one is hunting for a rarity.
...that one you've already got is a nice one.....and i'm in wid da peeps on the hair of your potential coin...
Just FYI, here are two Galba denarii of the SPQR reverse that sold at auction within the last year or so for $300 not including buyer's fee (so about $360 total): CNG E-Auction April 2019: Stack's Bowers January 2019: My personal opinion is that both of these are better choices, as well as less expensive, than either of the two examples you posted. You might want to consider searching SixBid (https://www.sixbid.com/en) from time to time for "galba denarius" and bidding online for a coin that appeals to you. It might take a year or more, but you'll probably find better choices within your budget. I also concur that when a coin price seems too good to be true, you should be very wary.
I’m agreeing with everyone on here that it’s too good to be true so going to hunt for a better coin , maybe not galba for now !
I recently bought this Galba at the NYINC. I like this coin because in my opinion it has one of the most artistic dies of any of his sestertii. The image is so powerful.It is such a contrast to the portrait of Nero which preceded it. Sestertius of Galba RIC 339 68 A.D. Bust left laureate. Rv. CONCORD AVG. Pax enthroned left 26.40 grms 34 mm Photo B W. Hansen
Wow such a beautiful sestertius, one of my favourite types to collect . The large size allowed for some amazing portraiture
